Special Report: How David Murray Got Away With It

Many people who lost money to David Murray learned a lesson: If a business opportunity sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

A more sweeping lesson is the one Murray laid out for state bar officials and others who are supposed to protect the public from people like Murray.

They were shown how to stop a thief. At least that's the lesson they could learn once they've finished studying Murray. His wicked genius provided the state with a $42 million textbook for reform.

What remains now is for the bar and others to open it.

The Virginia State Bar has formed a committee to study Murray. So has the General Assembly. But they've heard the same lectures before.

The bar was advised years ago to adopt a system of random audits to catch lawyers who fiddle around with their clients' money. The bar didn't listen.

The bar was advised to go out and look for corruption rather than sit back and wait for complaints to roll in. The bar didn't listen.

The bar was advised to make sure lawyers blow the whistle on each other; the bar was advised to pull open the curtains that hide the government agency's disciplinary proceedings; the bar was advised to abandon its use of local boards in deciding whether a lawyer should be punished.